Things have cooled off a bit on that front. If you’re going to ever give the Pirates credit for something, give them credit for not being Hell-bent on moving McCutchen at the cost of anything. Like when the Reds traded Jay Bruce. He was going, and it didn’t matter if it was Brandon Nimmo or some player without MLB experience; he was going damnit.

“Our intent coming in here was to have Andrew McCutchen in our lineup going forward. No one changed that,” Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said. “It’s unlikely that someone changes that going forward. We’re not going to close the door, but we’re not going to be making calls.”

I mean – the guy shouldn’t be traded. It’s been documented how loyal McCutchen was to stay in Pittsburgh to begin with. Hopefully a happy ending is written here with ‘Cutch going out and having a monster year and signing some type of extension that keeps him in Pittsburgh for the duration of his career.

Austin Meadows can be the pie guy or whatever. On this one, we’re actually rooting for the veteran.